Monday’s Chorus: 'Where's our bipartisan population strategy?'

Demographers forecast that there will only be around two working-age taxpayers for each pensioner by 2073. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

Briefly in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate:

• The Lead: The Helen Clark Foundation and WSP have released a report titled: Age-proofing Aotearoa: Rethinking our infrastructure for an ageing population, which calls for a “coherent, long-term population strategy that integrates ageing into every level of planning.”

• The report called for a bipartisan strategy to invest to cope with a housing shortage of 500,000 by 2043 and deal with a nursing care bed shortage of 32,000 by 2032.

• The Sidebar: Public Service Minister Judith Collins published an open letter yesterday accusing nurses, teachers and doctors of launching a politically motivated and coordinated attack on students and patients with their Thursday ‘mega-strike.’

• Collins, who has agreed to buy five helicopters for $400 million each, said the country was not earning enough to afford more than the 1% per annum pay increase offered by the Government.

• Quote of the day: “Planning ahead means putting infrastructure where it’s needed, before the pressure becomes unmanageable,” says WSP’s Kali Mercier.

• Number of the Day: 50%. That’s the likely home-ownership rate among over-65s by 2040, down from 82% in 2001.

• The Chart of the Day: The dependency ratio is forecast to halve to just two working age taxpayers per pensioner by 2073.

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The Lead: ‘Where’s our bipartisan population strategy?’